There is a community in San Jose, Costa Rica known as Los Guido, which according to the rules I learned in Spanish 1 (circa 2003) doesn’t really make sense in and of itself.
It is defined by poverty and violence. Where people get jumped and beat at the bus stop and shot on their front porch and raped and killed in their own home. It is the type of place that makes people question you and throw back skeptical glances when you ask where to catch the bus back there. The type of place that makes a man in the front seat of the bus lean out the door to ask the gringos if they are sure they are getting on the right bus.
And it is the type of place where you can see things like 1 Timothy 4:12 and the opening line from the second verse of “Hosanna” up close and personal.
The type of place where you can “see a generation rising up to take their place with selfless faith” and youth setting “an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” A place where kids get discipled, sometimes by other kids. A place where hundreds of kids come through a feeding center daily.
A place where youth gather to reach and pray for their own community.
A place where 12-year-olds are leaders of the youth group. A place where you can sit in Sunday afternoon church and Monday night discipleship classes and Tuesday night prayer meetings and Friday night activities and Saturday morning kids’ games with the same kids. The same teenagers.
You can put yourself right there in the middle of it. In La Finca. In the Comedor Sonrisa. In La Iglesia Nueva Vida.
And you can see God in the kind of place where you do not always imagine him being. Or maybe even look for him. Working in ways you don’t always imagine hime working. With and through people you might not expect.
At least not yet.
La Finca is filled with kids. La Iglesia Nueva Vida is mostly attended by youth. They are in the pews. In the worship team. In the leadership.
Because La Iglesia Nueva Vida is the church of the future. And it is the church right now. The church of today.
They can go further. Reach higher. Dig deeper and wider.
Because someone told them they could. Someone told them that they could lead the youth group. Someone told them that they could lead worship. Someone told them that they could sacrifice their Saturday mornings to take several buses to another slum community to lead discipleship classes. Someone told them that they could be present on Monday evenings and Tuesday evenings and Friday nights and Saturday mornings.
And then that person expected them to do it. That person expected them to be the church right now.
